Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education, 2008, 4(3), 195

EDITORIAL
M. Fatih Taar, Associate Editor
Gazi niversitesi, Ankara, TURKEY

In Memoriam
David Ausubel (1918 ~ 2008)
Professor Ausebel passed away in the morning of
July 9, 2008 at the age of 90. Among his most notable
scholarly work were The Subsumption Theory and Advance
Organizers.
Ausubel was an assistant surgeon and psychiatric
resident with the U.S. Public Health Service and worked
in Germany in the medical treatment of displaced
persons after W.W. II. He worked at the University of
Illinois between 1950-1966. He served as a professor of
educational psychology and medical education at the
University of Toronto between 1966-68. Then he
moved to the City University of New York, where he
chaired the doctoral program in educational psychology.
He retired in 1975. During his entire carrier he has been
a very influential figure in the field of educational
psychology.
He was most cited with the following quotes:
"If I had to reduce all of educational psychology to
just one principle, I would say this: The most important
single factor influencing learning is what the learner
already knows. Ascertain this and teach accordingly."
(1978, p.v)
"These organizers are introduced in advance of
learning itself, and are also presented at a higher level of
abstraction, generality, and inclusiveness; and since the
substantive content of a given organizer or series of
organizers is selected on the basis of its suitability for
explaining, integrating, and interrelating the material
they precede, this strategy simultaneously satisfies the
substantive as well as the programming criteria for
enhancing the organization strength of cognitive
structure."(1963, p. 81).

REFERENCES

Ausubel , D. (1963). The Psychology of Meaningful Verbal Learning.

New York : Grune & Stratton.
Ausubel , D., Novak, J., & Hanesian , H. (1978). Educational
Psychology: A Cognitive View (2nd Ed.). New York : Holt,
Rinehart & Winston.

Copyright 2008 by EURASIA

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